Just over a full year ago at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately given the green light as the world of Formula One's most recent entry for 2026. Constructing the squad from scratch has entailed a intense operating tempo that the principal, Graeme Lowdon, has equated to the Apollo program. As F1 converges on Vegas this weekend, the team are aware time is getting tight.
The Countdown to Australia
At the season finale of the season to be hosted in the America, with just over 100 days to go before they make their debut for the inaugural time in Australia at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a monumental endeavor, they are conscious there will never be sufficient time.
The CTO, Nick Chester, came aboard the newly formed operation in the spring of 2023 not long after it was established, when the team were without even an official entry. He has been at its center since then and enjoys a wry smile when thinking about the experience.
“You can have a short period reflecting at what you have accomplished and say: ‘Wow, what an achievement what we’ve done in under three years,’” Chester states. “And then the following moment you realize: ‘Yes, we still have quite a lot to do.’”
A Unique Challenge
Nick Chester achieved victories at the Renault team in the driver Fernando Alonso's victorious years of 2005 and 2006 and was in charge of engineering strategy at the then-new Mercedes electric racing team, but no other project has quite compared with the mission of bringing the quintessentially American Cadillac marque, a factory team backed by the corporate entity, General Motors Corporation, into F1.
“Building an Formula One team from nothing, when are you ever going to get a chance to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an well-set team you rarely get the possibility to change organizational mindset.”
With every day that goes by minds are more focused on the impending moment of truth in the Australian GP and goals are being managed.
“You have to assume that a brand-new squad joining the grid is probably going to finish last but just making it to the starting line will be an accomplishment in itself,” Graeme Lowdon noted recently and while Chester echoed this he felt the organization had a reputation to build as well.
“The first thing we aim to demonstrate is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “In order that we arrive and we operate well. We want to show that we’re a proper team executing the proper actions on the race track. When we prove that we are a legitimate team, then we aim to demonstrate progression from there on.”
Pilot Selection and Recruitment Effort
In August they contracted Checo Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a pair remarkable for their priceless expertise in operating at the front in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and Mercedes, and the Finnish driver reflected the attitude of combative optimism.
“Certainly, we are pragmatic,” he said. “There’s going to be a huge amount of work to do, and we expect almost certainly a tough opening, because it is F1. But our goal isn't to remain at the rear. I am confident with this structure, with this team, these personnel, there’s no reason why we won't be able to advance swiftly to a competitive level and achieve good results.”
To that end recruitment has been in top gear, with employees now at more than 400 and scheduled to reach the objective of 600 members swiftly. Complementing their present headquarters at the Silverstone circuit, the organization are in the phase of completing an headquarters at the Fishers location in the Indianapolis area and there is the GM works in Charlotte, where they are developing the center to produce the new engine, scheduled for the 2029 season – in the meantime they will run power from Ferrari – and the Toyota's wind tunnel in Cologne, Germany. It is a complex organization, at odds with the direction in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has led to the fresh organizational mindset to which the CTO alluded.
Apollo Model
“It’s highly modelled on the NASA moon mission,” stated the team principal shortly before the British Grand Prix in July. “We are pragmatic, we know how tough it is. The schedules, are extremely compressed. Alright, we’re not putting a man on the moon, but it can seem that way.”
So they have implemented, as opposed to the conventional chain of command, a non-hierarchical approach similar to that of the space agency's, where there were a assortment of Apollo teams all focusing on distinct elements of the program in a multiple sites.
“When you must follow a protocol where a challenge emerges and they escalate it to their team leader, that manager communicates with a supervisor in another department, it is relayed back, it becomes inefficient,” says Chester. “Therefore we enable team members to take charge. Moving away from management approval for everything is so much cleaner and faster.”
Upcoming Challenges
The success of this flexible methodology will be tested in the pressure of racing in 2026 and there is a significant degree at stake for the sport, too. Cadillac have taken on as their development driver the young American Colton Herta
